


Daddy's Little Lizard?

by Rioghna



Series: 7 Days, 7 Prompts [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Daddy's little girl!verse, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Humor, One Shot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-14 19:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3422084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rioghna/pseuds/Rioghna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For my celebration of fifty tumblr followers (thank you all), I am doing seven prompts in seven days.  bardic-raven--birdy-diamond prompted:  scales?  So does that mean the baby will molt?  (also does he?).  I just couldn't leave it and here you are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daddy's Little Lizard?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BardicRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BardicRaven/gifts).



 

 

Daddy's Little Lizard

 

Belle woke suddenly to an unexpected sound. She looked around the room carefully. The candles were low and the fire banked, Rumple was snuggled close to her, snoring softly, one arm thrown out above his riot of curls. Then she heard the sound again, the one that had woken her, the slight fussing of baby Rose. She shook her head a moment and tried to clear it. She was almost certain she had already woken to feed the baby but she reached blearily into the cradle next to the bed regardless. Rumple had been perfectly willing to have her in the bed with them, and she had been at first, reluctant to be parted even a little (and being married to a sorcerer had come in exceptionally handy at that, as he waved a sleepy hand to change the bed when she had wet through her swaddling and the bedding). But she knew that it would have to happen, and best to start now, especially as Rumple was showing signs of already being wrapped around the little girl's finger.

Belle lifted her into the bed and settled her down, opening her night dress. But the baby didn't latch on. Rather, she rubbed her face against her mother's skin and fussed softly, not a full cry, just a sort of whiney snuffling. It was unlike her, or what they knew of her so far, anyway. Rose was a happy baby, rarely cried, and was generally content to either play with one (or both) of her parents, or amuse herself quietly. Not but what the first time she cried she had made more than enough noise to bring her father teleporting down from his tower to find out what all the fuss was.

Carefully, Belle rose from the bed, hoping to leave Rumple sleeping at least for now. First she checked the swaddling, but the little girl was dry and clean. She tried to see if she had a temperature, but like her father, Belle just couldn't tell. She knew that despite the scales, he wasn't exactly cold blooded, at least she didn't think he was. Of course with magic, who could be sure? The temperature didn't seem to bother him but he did love a good cuddle.

But Rose didn't seem to be sick, just fussy. She was still rubbing her face against her mum and just making quiet noises, fidgeting. Unsure what to do, Belle made her way to the rocking chair that Rumple had devised for her, and settled down with a blanket and the baby. Maybe a good rock with her mum would get her to sleep.

 

Rumplestiltskin woke to a cold bed. It was not a normal sensation for him, not since his marriage, and it brought him out of sleep with a jolt. As he sat up, he saw Belle sitting in the chair near the banked fire, with Rose in her arms. Relief and love flooded him, but when his wife turned to look at him, it wasn't her usual smile, rather she looked...puzzled and slightly concerned.

"Rumple, would you take a look at Rose?" she asked.

"Is something wrong?" He was out of the bed and at her side in a heartbeat.

"I don't know, she woke a little fussy. She doesn't want to eat and...I don't know, maybe it's the light, but do her scales look a little...dull to you?" Of all the conversations either of them could have imagined about their life or their child, this was not even on the schedule. To her credit, Belle had taken their child's unusual appearance with not even a blink. Of course, he had always known that any woman who could fall in love with him, who could honestly look at him and tell him she found him beautiful, couldn't help but feel that way about Rose with her perfect little pure gold scales and her tiny translucent claws, her bright blue eyes, and the beginnings of her mother's chestnut curls. He still hadn't figured out how his daughter managed to be born with part of his cursed appearance, admittedly, he was a little vague on how he'd managed to _have_ a daughter. None of the previous Dark Ones had managed to sire children, so he'd rather thought the curse prevented it, that or at his age he was past it, and he'd resigned himself to looking over the next several children offered in trade, should Belle want one. Or he had until she had told him she was pregnant. He meant to get around to doing some research, they both had, but the demands of a new infant along with the usual vagaries of life in his position hadn't given him a lot of time for it.

Rumple held out his arms for the baby who immediately buried her face in her father's night shirt. "I just don't know what's wrong," Belle told him. "I mean, she doesn't seem to be in any pain, and I've checked all the usual things, but she's squirmy and she just sort of fusses..."

"She's not sick, love," he said, reassuring her. "She's just...er...she's shedding." The imp blushed a little, or what passed for a blush on his gold/green complexion. It should have occurred to him that it was a possibility, really it should have, but he excused it as being a product of age. After all, he didn't grow enough for it to matter much. Well, there was that one time after Belle had taken up baking, but it was an aberration, and she'd been trying to get a little weight on him, saying he'd got too thin. But that was besides the point, when their little girl was looking a little...dull and nothing would soothe her.

"You mean like shedding her skin...like molting?" Belle asked. She seemed more relieved and curious than anything. "No wonder she is squirming, poor thing. She probably itches. I didn't know you shed." She turned to her husband. "What do you do about it?" Gods, he loved his practical wife.

"I don't, not often, but I stopped growing a very long time ago. I've a potion for that, and it only happens ever few years at this point. It's not something..."

"I'm your wife," Belle reminded him pointedly. "You can tell me anything. Really, it should have occurred to me, what with the scales. Will your potion work on her? She's..."

"We will figure something out, love," he told her, rocking the baby and holding her close.

"Oh, I know we will. I'm just glad she's not ill or anything serious."

 _Only Belle_ , he though fondly as he turned his thoughts towards a solution. After all, his little one had a lot of growing still to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to those people who have followed me on tumblr. The response to Daddy's Little Girl was also a big thrill. Not all of the prompts will be in that 'verse, though there are a lot of them, and frankly, considering the day I have had (and its not over yet) the fluff is what I need to write. 
> 
> Tomorrow's prompt is a follow up to A Matter of Numbers, because...puppies.


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